Saturday, October 01, 2016

Mega-Hurricane Matthew Heads for Jamaica, Cuba

One of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recent history weakened
a little on Saturday as it roared across the Caribbean on a course that
still puts Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba in the path of potentially
devastating winds and rain.

Matthew briefly reached the top hurricane classification, Category 5,
and was the strongest Atlantic hurricane since Felix in 2007.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said its winds had slipped
to a still-devastating 155 mph (250 kph) and it was expected to reach
the eastern part of Jamaica on Monday.

Jamaicans began clearing out store shelves as they stocked up emergency
supplies and Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Friday called an urgent
meeting of Parliament to discuss preparations for the storm.

"I left work to pick up a few items, candles, tin stuff, bread,"
41-year-old Angella Wage said at a crowded store in the Half Way Tree
area of the capital, Kingston. "We can never be too careful."

Evan Thompson, director of Jamaica's National Meteorological Service,
said the first effects of the storm may be felt as early as Saturday.

"We do consider it serious," Thompson said. "We are all on high alert."

Jamaicans are accustomed to intense tropical weather but Hurricane
Matthew looked particularly threatening. At its peak, it was more
powerful than Hurricane Gilbert, which made landfall on the island in
September 1988 and was the most destructive storm in the country's
modern history.

"Hurricane Matthew could rival or possibly exceed Gilbert if the core of
the strongest winds does actually move over Jamaica," said Dennis
Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman for the hurricane center in
Miami. "There is no certainty of that at this point."

Matthew was expected to bring heavy rainfall especially to the eastern
tip and higher elevations, which could trigger flooding and landslides,
Thompson said.

Kingston is in the southeastern corner of Jamaica and is expected to
experience flooding. The government issued a hurricane watch on Friday,
and a tropical storm watch was issued for Haiti's southwest coast form
the southern border it shares with the Dominican Republic to the capital
of Port-au-Prince.

As of 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT), the storm was centered about 400 miles (645
kilometers) southeast of Kingston. It was moving west at 7 mph (11 kph).

Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 45 miles (75 kilometers)
from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 205
miles (335 kilometers).

It brought extremely high tides, storm surge and heavy rain to Colombia,
prompting authorities to declare an alert as local TV broadcast images
of cars and tree trunks surging though flooded streets in coastal areas.
Local media in La Guajira province reported that one person died in
flooding.

Matthew caused at least one death when it entered the Caribbean on
Wednesday, with officials in St. Vincent reporting a 16-year-old boy was
crushed by a boulder as he tried to clear a blocked drain.